1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a harvester capable of harvesting fruits or vegetables from low-growing plants. In particular but not exclusively, it relates to a pepper harvester.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various types of automatic harvesters have been developed for picking fruits or vegetables from low-growing plants. When a harvester is used to harvest plants growing in rows, the harvester moves along the rows and the plants are introduced into a picker head which is mounted on the harvester and which removes the fruits and vegetables from the plants.
During operation of such a harvester, a portion of the picker head may vibrate a plant being picked, causing some of the fruits or vegetables to fall off the plant and onto the ground ahead of the picker head without being collected by the harvester. With some types of plants, the amount of fruits or vegetables which fall off ahead of the picker head is quite significant. For example, in the case of chili pepper plants, with a conventional harvester, 10% or more of the peppers on the plants fall to the ground ahead of the picker head. Since pepper harvesters are not designed to pick up peppers off the ground, the peppers which have fallen to the ground end up being left in the field and wasted. As the peppers which fall off the plants and onto the ground tend to be the largest and hence most valuable ones, the lost income due to these peppers going unharvested is considerable.
Accordingly, there is a need for a harvester which can reduce the quantity of fruits or vegetables on plants being harvested which fall to the ground without being collected.